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Happily Adopted
Once upon a time, being an adoptee was a raw deal. Either your adoptive or foster parents were Muggles—caring, but utterly, utterly clueless—or they were downright abusive, presumably because you weren't their "blood." If it wasn't adoptive parents, it was step-parents. Either you went Gene Hunting, found your REAL parents and were loved for the rest of your life, or you moved out, lived on your own, and promptly forgot about them. Even if your adoptive parents were fairly harmless, if you ever found your real family, you forgot all about the people who raised you. Blood's thicker and all that, right? Or so it used to be. Because there are some problems in implying that adoptive parents are either bad (in the Abusive Parents variety) or unnecessary/useless (the Gene Hunting variant), many adoptees have a better deal. They're adopted. They know they're adopted—if not right off the bat, then it gets revealed to them that they are. Their reaction is... not to care. Oh, sure—maybe they care at first. Maybe they spend some time wondering about their birth parents, their origins, and where they really come from, but after some thought, they come to one conclusion: No matter who they were born to, they know who cared for them when they were sick, who helped them when they were down, and, most importantly, who loved them. When love's in play, the truth becomes obvious: Those who love them are their real family, blood be damned. Usually, the kid will eventually tell the parent that, throw in a hug and Heartwarming Moments are made as their bond grows stronger. What happens in cases where the child in question is a Wonder Child, and has celestial or other fantastic parentage? While in older works, the Muggle Foster Parents would frequently be forgotten about, in this trope, the child tends to accept both sets of "parents" as being real. If the child is a Heartwarming Orphan whose "original" parents died, the same thing may also apply. Thus, this has often become a component of the modern Happily Ever After: What will happen to the orphan child protagonist? He/she gets adopted by the adult good guys! Everybody is happy! Examples *In 101 Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita end up adopting the orphaned puppies that they help rescue. *In All Dogs Go to Heaven, Anne-Marie and Itchy get adopted by a loving couple in the end. *At the end of Matilda, when her parents Harry and Zinnia decide to flee to Guam, Matilda decides to stay with Miss Honey, who adopts her. *At the end of The Care Bears Movie, orphan brother and sister Jason and Kim have been adopted legally, while Nicholas has been essentially adopted by the magician he assists. And it turns out that Nicholas then grows up to be the film's narrator, who runs an Orphanage of Love with his wife, who is implied to possibly be Kim. *In Dinosaur, Aladar is adopted by a family of lemurs when he was a hatchling and they become a very close family. *In Despicable Me: Gru adopted 3 orphan girls as a plot but he ends up becoming close to them and loving them as his own. After Dr. Nefarious sends them back due to this, Gru later gets the girls back and officially adopts them. *The trolls adopted Kristoff as a young boy in Frozen. He considers them overbearing, annoying and intrusive (you know, just like any other family) and he loves them. *In the Disney Animated Canon version of Hercules, Herc's mortal parents seem to fade from the picture once they tell him he was adopted, and he discovers that he's the son of Zeus. However, one song mid-way through the movie shows that Hercules is using his newfound fame to take gooood care of them, building them an enormous mansion. In the film's conclusion, when Hercules triumphantly returns to Earth, they greet him happily as well. Hercules seems to accept both his earthly and heavenly parents as legit. The Series had an Aesop about this, with Herc's Muggle parents showing up at his school for a Parents' Day Thing rather than his godly ones. *Kung Fu Panda: Kung Fu Panda starts out with Po being Obliviously Adopted with Mr. Ping, with their relationship so lovingly strong that the subject of parentage never came up. Kung Fu Panda 2 has Po getting memory flashbacks that drive him to confront Mr. Ping to finally confirm that he is adopted and the panda is feeling rather ambivalent about it. However, by the end of the story, Po comes to realize that despite what he learns about his past, the fact remains he is truly Mr Ping's son in every meaningful way outside of biology and makes a point of telling him that. Ironically, his biological father is revealed to be alive immediately afterward. Even after he meets his biological father in the third film, Po still maintains a close relationship with Mr. Ping, calling both of them dad. **Tai Lung, who was treated like a son by Shifu before the former betrayed his foster father's principles in his pursuit of power. Tigress and Shifu had a similar relationship, although Shifu was relatively cold to her because of his falling out with Tai Lung. At least Tigress got to turn that around with Po's help. *Spike is adopted by Ducky's family, and he couldn't be happier. *Lewis Robinson is an orphaned boy approaching his teenage years who wants to be adopted before he becomes a teenager (because teenagers have much more difficulty getting adopted). This finally happens in the end. *Mr. Peabody adopted Sherman as an infant, and loves him as his son; Sherman considers himself the luckiest boy in the world. *Penny was fretting about her chances of adoption in The Rescuers before she got kidnapped by the verbally abusive Madame Medusa. With the help of the titular two mice, she saves the day, and the movie ends with her getting adopted. *Fernando at the end of Rio. *Kala adopts Tarzan and they have a close relationship. Rosie O'Donnell (who has two adopted children) has said that she took a role in the film because she liked how it put adoption in a positive light. Granted, Tarzan was adopted by gorillas, but he was happy. *Babe the pig was taken in by Fly the sheepdog. *The Tuohys adopt Michael Oher in The Blind Side and he's damn happy with them, even with the expected prejudice and problems. Also, the story is Based on a True Story. * Jesse in Free Willy eventually bonds with his foster parents, Glenn and Annie. In the sequel, he refers to Glenn as "my dad." *In The Jerk, Navin Johnson grew up part of a poor black family. While he does strike out on his own upon learning that he was adopted ("You mean I'm going to stay this color?") it's solely out of a desire to find his place in the world, and he stays in contact with his family and sends them money when he starts making it. When it all blows up in his face, they take him back in, and it ends with him and his wife dancing and playing music with the family. *An especially moving example is revealed toward the end of Where the Heart Is, when Lexie marries Ernie. She explains to Novalee that Ernie's daughter Carol Ann is not his daughter - she's the child of his ex-wife, with whom he also has a son. His wife ran off and left him with both kids, so he raised them as though they were both his own; when the ex realized that Ernie wanted custody of her daughter, she demanded that he turn over his valuable antique sports car in exchange. As Lexie says, "He traded his car for her daughter." *In The Walking Dead, Carl and Judith Grimes are adopted in everything but name by Michonne. After several seasons and finally making peace with the death of Lori, Carl tells Michonne in that she's become his second mother. He also admits that he loves her and would never allow her to remain a walker. In Season 6, he tells Rick that he's wholly onboard with their new relationship, though he was a bit surprised to learn of it by seeing them half-dressed when emerging from their bedroom. **In a season 7 episode, Rick admits that Judith is not his daughter, but that of his late wife and best friend. He states that he loves her as if she were his own, though. * In Dragon Ball, Grandpa Gohan adopted Goku as his own son after Bardock and his mom sent Goku to Earth, to protect him and save him from Frieza and Planet Vegeta blowing up. * In Princess Mononoke, San was adopted by Moro after her parents threw her to Moro as sacrific for them to live. But Moro killed the parents after what they did to San, and raised San as her own daughter. *In Stranger Things, Eleven/Jane is adopted by Jim Hopper with the help of Dr. Sam Owens, who creates a birth certificate for Eleven. Gallery Images Baby Tarzan & Kala.jpg|Tarzan is happily adopted by Kala, a gorilla. Dalmatians.jpg|All 84 Dalmatians puppies are adopted by Pongo & Peredita, including Roger & Anita Radcliffe. Matilda and Miss Honey.jpg|Matilda happily adopted by Miss Honey. Penny adopted.jpg|Penny happily adopted after being rescued by Bernard & Miss Bianca. Young Kristoff.jpg|Kristoff and Sven are happily adopted by Bulda, a troll. File:GrampaGohanFindsGokuSpecial02.png|Goku is happily adopted by Grandpa Gohan. Babe & Fly.jpg|Babe becomes somewhat of an adopted son to Fly. Baby Po.png|Mr. Ping adopting a baby Po. Dinosaur.jpg|A baby Aladar happily adopted by a family of lemurs. Eleven-hopper-2.jpg|Eleven happily adopted by Jim Hopper. Category:About Heroes Category:Heroic Events